The Medicinal Herb Info site was created to help educate visitors about the often forgotten wisdom of the old ways of treating illnesses. Many of today's drugs and medicines were originally derived from natural ingredients, combinations of plants and other items found in nature.

We are not suggesting that you ignore the help of trained medical professionals, simply that you have additional options available for treating illnesses. Often the most effective treatment involves a responsible blend of both modern and traditional treatments.

Cleavers is a scrambling annual plant; a tender taproot produces the weak, square, procumbent or climbing, prickly, four-angled stems have hooked bristles on the angles; stem grows from 2-6 feet long supported by other vegetation. The rough, oblong-lanceolate to almost linear leaves occur in whorls of 6 or 8 around the stem. The tiny, tubular, white or greenish-white flowers (arranged as the Maltese cross) grow in cymes on long, axillary peduncles in upper leaf axils from May to September. The fruit (following after the blossoms) consists of two joined, bristly, globular, one-seeded carpels. The entire plant is covered with tiny bristly, spines.

Another variety: Called cleaver’s vine (Galium verum) is also known as Lady;s bedstraw, Maid’s hair, and Cheese rennet. (Of the same genus (Galium) but a different plant. Also Galium odoratum.Back to Top

Found in moist or grassy places, thickets, moist shady woodland, waste places and along riverbanks and fences in Canada, the eastern half of the United States, and the Pacific coast. Dense, tangled masses of cleavers can be seen clinging to surrounding vegetation in most hedgerows.Back to Top

A popular herb in folk medicines throughout the centuries, cleavers or goosegrass is a vigorously growing weed that twines through hedges or garden shrubberies producing long sticky stems. The young shoots are some of the first weeds to appear in spring and make an excellent cleansing tonic, a remedy widely used in central Europe and the Balkans. Also cooked as a vegetable, like spinach.

A medical herbalist reported the case of an overweight woman who took daily infusions of cleavers. During the first month nothing happened, but on the fifth week she began slowly losing weight, and at the end of 6 months her weight was down to normal. She had lost a total of 32 lbs. and has not put them back on again.

The predominant uses for cleavers is external, although the tea has been recommended for stomach and intestinal catarrh and for irritations of mucous membranes, tonsillitis, including those of the urinary tract, arthritis, jaundice, dropsy. The juice of the fresh plant or a tea made from the dried plant is popular for skin problems. The juice or tea is applied daily and allowed to dry (before each application, wash the affected area with rectified alcohol, burning the cloth each time). If preferred, make a salve for the skin by mixing the fresh juice with butter (renew every 3 hours and burn the cloth used to apply it). Applying the crushed fresh leaves directly is also said to be helpful for skin problems and for stopping bleeding. Cleavers is used in Europe for healing wounds and sores, psoriasis, cysts, boils, swellings or for treating skin infections, swollen lymph glands, snakebites. Makes a good face wash to clear the complexion.

An infusion can be used to stimulate the kidneys, to help the body eliminate excess water, help cure cystitis, and to expel kidney stones. Juice of fresh herb used for scurvy. Juice contains citric acid, reported to have antitumor activity. The cold infusion removes freckles when applied externally.

Due to its refrigerant properties it is excellent in all cases of fever, scarlet fever, measles, and all acute diseases.

Good in scrofula and inflammatory stages of gonorrhea.

Cleavers (Galium aparine) which the Chinese call Chu-yang-yang, was considered by the ancients as an excellent remedy for obesity and also for cleansing the blood.

Used as a lotion it makes a first-rate tonic for the scalp, which clears it of dandruff, and the skin. It was once held to cure leprosy and is still used to treat skin cancer.

The ancient Greeks matted it together to make a natural, rough sieve, supposedly for straining milk.Back to Top

The Magic of Herbs, by David Conway, published by Jonathan Cape, Thirty Bedford Square, London, England. (Out of print)

Herbal Gardening, compiled by The Robison York State Herb Garden, Cornell Plantations, Matthaei Botanical Gardens of the University of Michigan, University of California Botanical Garden, Berkeley., Pantheon Books, Knopf Publishing Group, New York, 1994, first edition